This article reports the findings of a study showing that one-third of all foreign students who studied at Australian universities speak English so poorly that they should never have been granted visas to study in the country in the first place. The study, by Robert Birrell, director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Australia's Monash University, showed that more than half of all Thai and South Korean students, more than a third of those from China, and sizable minorities of students from countries where most would have been exposed to English as a secondary language of instruction failed the language test. Gerard Sutton, president of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, said the data used in the study, which primarily focused on the spoken-language test results of accounting and computational-science students, had already led to tougher student visa requirements that will go into effect later this year.